Old gems decorate Herkner's new East Beltline location

Press Photo/Delbridge LangdonHerkner Jewelers' customers celebrate the store's new location at 1600 East Beltline Ave. NE during a grand opening last week.

GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP -- In an effort to move the business forward, owners of Herkner Jewelers looked to the past.

The store, located for 141 years on Monroe Center in downtown Grand Rapids, left that site in September and reopened in a new retail center at 1600 East Beltline Ave. NE.

But owners Randy and Lydia Dice took the antique store fixtures with them and adorned the walls with pictures of the business from its storied past.

"We wanted to maintain the integrity and history of Herkner's," Lydia Dice said. "We have a lot of old photos going back to the 1800s that we've now displayed."

The store was established in 1867 by Civil War Col. Joseph Herkner, Dice said, and he appears in many of the photos. Other photos show the city's history, including cable cars, horses and ladies in long dresses.

"A lot of people know us, and some people don't know the history," she said. "Now, with the new location, it's much more visible."

Dice, who with her husband bought the store in 1991, said they relocated to better serve their customers.

The store is the first retailer in a combined retail/office building next door to O'Charley's restaurant. It employs eight people.

Herkner's vacated the downtown space Sept. 19 and has been operating at the new site since Sept. 30 while renovations were continuing, Dice said.